Court recognizes violation of visually impaired children's rights in Volgograd

On May 26, the Voroshilov District Court of Volgograd granted the claim about the inaction of officials from the Education and Science Committee of the Volgograd Region and obliged them to develop regulations for implementation of adapted educational programmes.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in December 2016, the "Ray of Light", a regional public organization created by parents of visually impaired children, filed a claim against the Education and Science Committee of the Volgograd Region. According to the parents, the inaction of the Committee's officials resulted in the lack of specialists in special schools to work with visually impaired children.

"The Court has pronounced a decision to grant the claim in full. You should have seen the joy of the parents who were leaving the courtroom and of the people who were waiting the completion of the court hearing outside the building," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Olga Sedykh, the chair of the board of the regional public organization "Ray of Light".

"I cannot believe that we have succeeded. We are so glad that our children will finally have everything for proper studies and medical treatment, since because of underfunding, there are no sufficient number of typhlopedagogists and psychologists in kindergarten for our children. There is no even a permanently employed nanny. In winter, the children too rarely walked in the street, since it was difficult for a single assistant to dress and undress all of them. And the children are not able to dress and undress themselves, since they hardly see anything," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Maxim Tolstukhin, in whose child's interests the Court considered the claim.

"And my child needs a psychologist, since he is visually impaired and he actually does not see anything. He began to ask questions: 'Daddy, when will my eyes be healed?' And what can I answer him? Here, we need a competent psychologist. However, because of underfunding, there are no psychologists in our kindergarten," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by plaintiff Roman Dorokhov, whose child goes the secondary school No. 1.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.